Fresh war of words between LG Jung, Kejriwal government over Chautala parole

New Delhi: The war of words between Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and ruling AAP over the parole controversy escalated yesterday with the government questioning how he knew about a second parole plea by former Haryana Chief Minister OP Chautala without the file reaching his office.

Though Jung's office was not mentioning about any second parole plea by Chautala, today it claimed the LG had come to know about it 'informally' and had mentioned it during a meeting with Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain on October 21.

The AAP has been alleging that Jung was showing 'undue interest' in Chautala getting parole and had pressured Jain in this regard. After the LG dismissed the charges saying Chautala's parole plea was rejected on October 5, the AAP government had dared the LG to deny that the 'pressure' on Jain was based on another parole plea.

"It was brought to the notice of the Home Minister that parole case of Om Prakash Chautala is pending with the Home Department and should be processed on merit without political considerations. Delay in processing the file by the Home Department is not reasonable as the convict is 84 years old and has had medical history," a statement by LG office said.

It said that Jain had himself fixed up the meeting with Jung with the request of withdrawing 24 cases registered against AAP leaders pending in various courts including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Another meeting was held on the same issue on September 11, OSD to Jung Ajay Choudhary said.

Rejecting the claim, the AAP government said it had recommended withdrawal of prosecution against a number of political leaders including from both BJP and Congress. It said the list includes Congress' Mukesh Sharma and BJP's Vijay Goel, Parvesh Verma, Vijendra Gupta and Ramesh Bidhuri.

The government claimed vindication saying the LG's statement amounts to his 'admission' that he was in touch with people related to Chautala. "How did the LG know that another parole application had been filed by Chautala when the file had not even reached him?" a senior government official asked.